Square Strives Beyond Payments with New API Offering

In an effort to target and support all aspects of commerce, Square has launched Orders API. A custom offering for Square’s Developer Platform, Orders API enables developers to build solutions that allow buyers to generate orders in-app, online and in-person, according to the press release. Once the order has been placed via the desired medium, it can then be sent to a Square seller currently using one of the company’s POS products (Square for Retail, Square POS or Square for Restaurants).

So, what are the benefits? With Orders API, payments are just the first step. As it stands now, Square sellers already use the Square POS for order placement and payment remittance. But with Orders API, the POS is not just for payments anymore. It can also be used as an “online and in-app order fulfillment and management hub,” according to the same release.

Often a pain point for developers, having to go through several different vendors to accomplish their end result (hardware device provider, payment API provider, order management platform, POS vendor and more) is often times costly and time-consuming. Orders API has alleviated this burden with their one-stop-shop offering that provides developers with the flexibility to create end-to-end solutions for sellers from one single platform that includes payments, inventory, customer management and more.

“Over the past few years, the Square developer team has released tools that enable developers to build solutions that take payments in-person, online and in mobile apps,” said Square Developer Platform Lead Carl Perry via the same release. “Now, our robust suite of APIs take the platform a step further and enable developers to create full, scalable and buyer friendly commerce experiences for merchants of all sizes, across a variety of industries.”

Square’s top competitor (according to Retail Dive) is Shopify, who has also made recent upgrades of their own – the latest one being the release of their contactless payment reader.